One of the best museums I’ve
ever been to was not in New York, Paris or London. It was in Madrid. The museum is called the Thyssen, and it is small and wonderfully organized. In fact, they took great
pains to arrange the paintings according to genre and period, and they don’t overwhelm you with sheer volume, the way
they do at places like the Prado or the Met. The presentation of work is measured, elegant and, well, quick.

Well, over at MSNBC they have put together a nice little listing
of the top ten cities for art lovers. Now it is a testament to their short-comings or my own lack of experience and
knowledge about the art world that they left out Madrid. But they did include many other well-known art cities. New
York gets the nod, as does Florence, Paris and Chicago. They also give Berlin, one city that I am dying to see, a high
ranking.